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Thursday, February 14, 2013

What Easter Seals Means to my Female Human

Female Human and Male Human

With only 4 days left before voting ends, I thought I would get my human to guest write and tell you in her own words why raising money for Alberta Easter Seals is so important to her. Because without her rescuing me from the Cows store shelf in Banff almost 6 years ago, I wouldn’t be here today to share my thoughts with you. Please read on below and I hope that you will help Moo to get as many people as possible to vote (on.fb.me/12EUZ2Q) so that I can help my female human win $500 for Alberta Easter Seals.

I am disabled and I don’t really talk about my disability, mostly due to the fact that most of the time I don’t even view myself as disabled. However, that wasn’t always the case.

I was born with Spina Bifida, a birth defect where the spine doesn’t close before birth. Depending on the location of this opening, it can have little impact on the child’s life (a minor limp in the cases that I’ve seen) or a major impact (paralysis). This was a lot more common a few decades ago before they started asking women to take folic acid supplements during pregnancy.

As a result, I have to wear leg braces to help me walk, and I have a physical malformation near the bottom of my spine. Least to say, as a kid walking with a major limp, having a visible malformation, and having to wear leg braces led to a lot of teasing from kids. I had low self esteem, hardly had any friends, and spent a lot of time in my room crying (I’m actually trying not to cry right now as I write this).

My doctors weren’t much better, telling me that I couldn’t participate in sports, would never lead a normal life, and would most likely be in a wheelchair before my 18th birthday. So I spent a lot of my younger years relegated to the sidelines in gym class, and believing that there was no point dreaming about what I’d be when I grew up cause I’d be confined to a wheelchair.

However, my mom decided to send me to Camp Easter Seal, and even though I really didn’t want to go, it was the best thing my mom ever forced me to do. At first when I got there, it seemed like I had nothing in common with the other campers. Upon first glance, a lot of them were worse off than me. In wheelchairs, with mental and cognitive disabilities, and not in the same in between boat as me, where I was only somewhat disabled, which meant that I had to endure going to a regular school where no one else was like me.

But then I met my fellow cabin mates, and learned that even those confined to a wheelchair had big hopes and dreams. Even they could ride horses, canoe, swim, and do things that I had been told by my teachers I could not do. Camp Easter Seal showed me that I could do all the same activities, dream big, and live a normal life as long as I learned that life wasn’t about being hindered by my ability. Instead they empowered me to learn to work with the abilities I had, and proving to others that I was as able and capable as any other able bodied person. Maybe I had to do things differently, but I could still participate in sports and become whatever I wanted to be. By the time the end of camp rolled around, I didn’t want to leave and wound up going back again the next summer.

So please help me to win $500 for Alberta Easter Seals so they can continue to help children see that they can do whatever they want if they set their mind to it. That they don’t have to accept what their doctors, teachers, and classmates tell them they are, or what they can or cannot do.

If everyone could tweet, post, put on their FaceBook status or email others they know to follow this link (on.fb.me/12EUZ2Q) and ask them to “Like” the picture of Marlow’s creation, I’d be ever so grateful.

Voters don't need to live in Edmonton, Alberta or even Canada. They just have to have a FaceBook account. The creation with the most votes by February 18 wins.